01-01 Cover_Layout 1 22/03/2015 17:37 Page 1

available at the London Chess Centre - www.chess.co.uk/shop

A

Liquidation on the Chess BoardMastering the Transition into the Pawn EndingJoel Benjamin 256 pages - £16.95“An excellent new book.” – GM Karsten Müller“Well written and thoroughly researched. The selected examples have a strong practical value.” – GM Daniel King“The book works quite addictively (..) It’s dealing with one of the big moments of uncertainty in practical chess.” – GM Matthew Sadler

The English Attack against the Taimanov SicilianA guide for WhiteZaven Andriasyan 192 pages - £15.99Against the popular Taimanov Sicilian, the English Attack has long been considered harmless. GM Zaven Andriasyan has thoroughly and systematically investigated this unexplored territory. He unveils the structures, explains the plans and counterplans, and presents a wealth of highly interesting new ideas and novelties. An easy-to-grasp and dangerous new weapon!

New In Chess 2015#2Read by subscribers in 116 countries106 pages - £8.99Magnus Carlsen on the brilliance of Chinese prodigy Wei Yi. Parimarjan Negi on calculation. Hikaru Nakamura annotates his play in Zurich. Matthew Sadler on modern defence. Jacob Zuma, the chess player. How good was Carlsen’s first year as world champ? Arturo Pérez-Reverte on the eyes of Kortchnoi. Anish Giri reports on Wijk aan Zee. Maximize your tactics. Nigel Short on women and chess. And much more!

A Cunning Chess Opening for BlackLure Your Opponent into the Philidor Swamp!Sergey Kasparov 334 pages - £21.99Taking your opponent out of his comfort zone is a good idea to start your game with. GM Sergey Kasparov pushes this concept one step further: White will walk into the Philidor Swamp in which he runs a big risk of getting stuck! Kasparov does not bother the amateur reader with variations of 15 or 20 moves deep, but concentrates on the plans and counterplans for both Black and White.NEW!

NEW!

NEW!

NEW!

3 April 2015

ContentsEditorial.................................................................................................................4Malcolm Pein on the latest developments

60 Seconds with... ...........................................................................................7CHESS contributor and acclaimed author David LeMoir

A Close One.........................................................................................................8An Armageddon game was required at the Zurich Chess Challenge

Tomashevsky Triumphs in Tbilisi.............................................................14Steve Giddins saw the Professor win the third leg of the Grand Prix

Top Seeds Falter .............................................................................................18Chris Fegan reports from the World Senior Team Championship

Back to Brum ...................................................................................................22The 4NCL returned to Birmingham as Guildford faced Cheddleton

Lightning Strikes Three Times - Twice ................................................30David LeMoir on an unusual double coincidence

Missed Opportunities ..................................................................................32James Coleman on not creating deadly tactics for the opponent

(Bad) Luck Never Gives, It Only Lends................................................34Junior Tay on the curious case of ‘Lucky’ Lawrence Trent

Forthcoming Events .....................................................................................35Where will you be playing this month?

How Good is Your Chess? ..........................................................................36Daniel King explains how Nakamura went pawn-grabbing and won

Studies with Stephenson............................................................................39News from the International Solving Contest

Find the Winning Moves .............................................................................40Can you do as well as the players at Bunratty and the 4NCL?

The Gibbins-Weidenhagen Gambit ........................................................44Matthew Lunn studies a gambit which isn’t as bad as it looks

Never Mind the Grandmasters................................................................46Carl Portman presents the worst chess book covers

Overseas News ...............................................................................................48David Norwood, Peter Wells and Justin Tan shone at Bunratty

Home News.......................................................................................................52Keith Arkell and Matthew Webb tied for first at Blackpool

Solutions............................................................................................................54

New Books and Software...........................................................................55Una O’Boyle and Judit Polgar receive favourable reviews

Saunders on Chess ........................................................................................58John reflects on how history tends to be written by the winners

Photo credits: Andorra Chess Federation (p.49), Roger Bennett (p.53 left),Chess Scotland (p.28), Calle Erlandsson (pp.15-16, 50), Bob Jones (p.52,lower), Eteri Kublashvili (p.1, 9, 11, 13), Ray Morris-Hill (pp.5, 23, 25, 27, 34,52 top, 53 right), Adam Raoof (p.24), Roger Scowen (pp.18, 20).

ChessFounding Editor: B.H. Wood, OBE. M.Sc †Executive Editor: Malcolm PeinEditors: Richard Palliser, Matt ReadAssociate Editor: John SaundersSubscriptions Manager: Paul Harrington

Twitter: @CHESS_MagazineTwitter: @TelegraphChess - Malcolm PeinWebsite: www.chess.co.uk

Subscription Rates:United Kingdom1 year (12 issues) £49.952 year (24 issues) £89.953 year (36 issues) £125

Europe 1 year (12 issues) £602 year (24 issues) £112.503 year (36 issues) £165 USA & Canada1 year (12 issues) $902 year (24 issues) $1703 year (36 issues) $250

Rest of World (Airmail)1 year (12 issues) £722 year (24 issues) £1303 year (36 issues) £180 Distributed by:Post Scriptum (UK only), Unit G, OYO Business Park, Hindmans Way, Dagenham, RM9 6LN - Tel: 020 8526 7779 LMPI (North America)8155 Larrey Street, Montreal (Quebec), H1J 2L5, Canada - Tel: 514 355-5610

Views expressed in this publication are notnecessarily those of the Editors. Contributions tothe magazine will be published at the Editors’discretion and may be shortened if space is limited.

No parts of this publication may be reproduced without the prior express permission of the publishers.

All rights reserved. © 2015

Chess Magazine (ISSN 0964-6221) is published by:Chess & Bridge Ltd, 44 Baker St, London, W1U 7RTTel: 020 7288 1305 Fax: 020 7486 7015Email: info@chess.co.uk, Website: www.chess.co.uk FRONT COVER:Cover Design: Matt ReadCover Photography: Eteri Kublashvili US & Canadian Readers – You can contact us via ourAmerican branch – Chess4Less based in West Palm Beach, FL. Call toll-free on 1-877 89CHESS (24377).You can even order Subscriber Special Offers online via www.chess4less.com

Printed in the UK by The Magazine PrintingCompany using only paper from FSC/PEFC

suppliers www.magprint.co.uk

03-03 Contents_Chess mag - 21_6_10 22/03/2015 17:39 Page 40

I was recently browsing the books at the chessshop on Baker Street, and couldn’t help butmarvel at the sheer quantity of information that’scontinually coming on to the market, onseemingly every aspect of chess you care toname. This started to get me thinking, and I posedmyself the question: what hasn’t been written? As I casually flicked through a book on chesstactics, full of brilliant finishes and outrageoussacrifices, and lamented how rarely it is that Iget to play such flashy combinations in my owngames, it occurred to me that, for manyplayers, games are lost more from making badmoves than failing to find good ones. So, for thisarticle, I am going to take a look at the tacticstraining situation in reverse. Rather than focus on finding winning moves,I am going to concentrate on situations wherethe main theme is to maintain a playableposition, as well as highlighting some of themain psychological pitfalls that can ruin ourresults. I am going to concentrate on two mainscenarios. Firstly, we will encounter situationswhere there are several playable moves and wemust avoid a natural looking mistake. Secondly,we will touch on some ‘only move’ scenarios. Inmost cases, we will see how players failed toanticipate tactical shots, not for themselves,but for their opponents. An oft-quoted maxim is to always have a lookand see what your opponent is threatening,which is, of course, good advice. However, thereis a natural psychological tendency to assumethat if your opponent does not currently haveany threat, then any half-decent move willsuffice, particularly if it is one that seems toconform to general principles. Sometimes,though, the move played can set up anunexpected tactical shot for the opponent, as inthis game between two strong grandmasters.

A.Yusupov-D.GurevichMinneapolis 2005

13...Ìc6?? A logical developing move, challengingWhite’s strong knight on e5 and addingfurther pressure to d4. There surely can’t beanything wrong with that, as after all, Whitehad no threat... Instead, 13...Ìd5 would have kept White’sadvantage to manageable proportions.14 Ía6! Yusupov immediately spots the refutation,with an attractive decoy. Gurevich is not theonly player to have fallen victim to this tactic.Indeed, even Judit Polgar once fell for thistactic, albeit in a rapidplay game and viaslightly different move order.14...h6 This is the only move to avoid losing anentire piece, but Black has to accept a ruinedposition, and against Yusupov, this is not arecipe for success. The rest of the gamemerits only brief comments.15 Íxh6 Ìd5 15...Íxa6 would still fail to 16 Ìxc6 Ëd717 Ìxe7+ Ëxe7 18 Íg5 Êg7 19 Ìe4, etc.16 Ëh3 Ìxc3 17 bxc3 White doesn’t have a single difficult moveto find, and Gurevich soon wisely throws inthe towel.17...Íxa6 18 Ìxc6 Ëd6 19 Ìxe7+Ëxe7 20 Íxf8 Îxf8 21 Îfe1 Íc4 22Ëh6 1-0

Another common psychological trap is toassume that an opponent will always make anobvious capture or recapture.

I.Poteas-A.PapargiriouAthens 2008

Here White has opted for a tricky variationof the Torre Attack, which, while notpromising any theoretical advantage, hascaught out a few unwary opponents.

10 Ìe5 Ìxe5?! 10...h6 would probably have been safest.In any case, it would certainly have avoidedthe catastrophe that befell Black in thegame. The move played doesn’t actually loseoutright, but it is unlikely Black would haveplayed it had he seen that his intendedfollow-up was impossible.11 dxe5 Ìd7? There was still time to change course withthe unnatural looking 11...Ìh5, but it’sunlikely Black gave any thought to this,feeling safe in the knowledge that he wouldachieve complete equality after White’scapture on e7.12 Ëh4 1-0 This must have been a nasty surprise. Thedual attack on e7 along with the mate threatdecides the game instantly.

If you can see that your opponent isplanning to carry out a threat, and that thethreat has a flaw in it, you can sometimes pickup easy wins by either allowing them to carryout their plan, or in some cases even provokingit. Before doing so, however, it is important tomake sure the opponent hasn’t seen more thanyou and isn’t deliberately allowing you to carryout your ‘refutation’ – a sort of double-bluff. Aparticularly striking example:

A.Jakubiec-P.VelickaCzech League 2000

7...h6? Black’s reasoning probably went along thelines of: if the white knight retreats to e4 (ithad just come from there), then I should beroughly equal, and I can see that he wants tosacrifice on f7, winning a pawn, but I have anintermediate move that takes care of that, solet’s provoke it. 7...e6 would have been perfectly safe, and

April 2015

James Coleman ensures that you won’t create a deadly tactic for your opponent

Missed Opportunities

32

32-33 MissedOpps_Chess mag - 21_6_10 22/03/2015 18:02 Page 32

left White with a normal opening advantage,but nothing more.8 Ìxf7! Íxf3 Black realised that he would not be able toplay 8...Êxf7 due to 9 Ìe5+ which wins forWhite, but he was counting on the move heplayed to cut across White’s plan.9 Íg6!!

White had foreseen Black’s tactics andresponds with a stunning intermediate moveof his own. This is just the kind of move thatis so difficult to anticipate. 9...Íxd1 10Ìe5# is obviously the point.9...Ëa5+ Black’s only chance to keep playing, but heis losing material. 10 Ëd2 Ëxd2+ The queen exchange is forced in order tonot lose an entire rook.11 Íxd2 Íxg2 12 Îg1 Íe4 13 Ìxh8+Íxg6 14 Ìxg6 White is a clear exchange up and, althoughBlack resisted for a long time, the result wasnever remotely in doubt.

Sometimes we have a worse, or evenlosing position, and the trick is finding theonly move to continue the struggle and makelife difficult for the opponent.

J.Coleman-C.MacKenzie4NCL, Sunningdale 2008

Here, playing White, I thought the gamewas all but over, and my previous move, Îf2-

f5, attacking the d-pawn seemed verylogical. However, I had a large timeadvantage, and should have forced myself tosearch harder for my opponent’s defensiveidea, as with just a few seconds left to reachthe time control, he surprised me:38...Îc3!! My lazy thinking assumed that Black’sonly way to get counterplay against my b-pawn was with 38...Îd3 and it was easy tosee that after 39 Îxd5 Îd2 40 c6 the c-pawn is too strong.39 Îxd5 Now, instead of 39...Îc1+, which gaveme winning chances again (if ones I failed toexploit), 39...Îc2 was even stronger when itseems that Black should be fine. Was it necessary for Black to accuratelyassess this ending before playing 38...Îc3?Absolutely not – when everything else islosing trivially, the only remaining practicalchance can be played without much analysis,putting the time and psychological pressureright back on the opponent.

A.Mikhailov-L.GrigorievMoscow 1931

In a desperate situation, four pawns down,White finds his only practical chance. Noanalysis is needed as it is obvious thatanything else loses trivially.81 Îc1+! Êb3 82 Îc3+ Êb4 83 Îc4+ Of course, White must check on the correctsquares and so avoids 83 Îb3+?? Îxb3.83...Êa5 84 Îa4+ Êb6 85 Îa6+ ½-½ In this position, not seeing any way outof the desperado checks, Black acquiescedto a draw. The fact that Black could stillhave won by bringing the king around to thee2-square does not diminish the value ofWhite’s idea – he found the best practicalchance, and his opponent was not able todeal with it correctly. Actually 85...Êc5 86Îc6+ Êd4 87 Îc4+ Êd3 88 Îd4+ Êe2 wins, because White nolonger has a desperado check that leads tostalemate if captured.

Now try to find the best moves in thefollowing positions. Remember, we are notlooking for a winning continuation: the task is

to hold the balance, whilst avoiding anypossible pitfall. Above all, consider tacticalresources for the opponent.

TEST YOUR CHESS

M.Carlsen-V.Anand8th matchgame, Chennai 2013

White to Play

Z.Azmaiparashvili-A.ShirovMadrid 1996

How should Black protect his knight?

Solutions are on page 54.

www.chess.co.uk33

32-33 MissedOpps_Chess mag - 21_6_10 22/03/2015 18:02 Page 33

01-01 Cover_Layout 1 22/03/2015 18:39 Page 1